From That Day On
by Kanna37
Summary: Five years before Kikyou pinned Inuyasha to the Goshinboku, he almost died.  But then he felt the touch of a woman's soul, and the love, protection, and promise she gave that day, saved him. Fifty-five years later, he realized - it had always been Kagome.


**From That Day On**

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha. More's the pity.

-sSs-

"Sankon Tessou!"

Inuyasha leaped, but barely made it out of the way in time, a green whip slicing through the air with deadly accuracy just fractions of a second after he moved.

"Sesshoumaru, you bastard! Leave me the fuck alone!" the hanyou shouted, angered and afraid. He knew he couldn't last long against the full-youkai that shared the same father as he. "Why do you keep bothering me!"

"You are a stain on my bloodline, you half-breed bastard, and I will not rest until you are _gone_." Sesshoumaru streaked back towards the red-clad hanyou, claws out and glowing green as he raked them across Inuyasha's back, causing the younger male to jump again with a blistering curse, hissing at the pain from his half-brother's poison.

"I don't give a shit about your bloodline, you fucker – so why the hell do ya have to keep chasing me? Seems _you're_ the one with the problem, not me!"

With an enraged snarl, Sesshoumaru disappeared, then reappeared in front of the shocked hanyou, spearing him in the gut with his claws. He smirked evilly at Inuyasha's pained gasp and slumping form. "Why do you bother to even fight, you disgusting _hanyou? _ No one will mourn your passing, no one will look for your remains to bury you. You are better off dead!" he growled as he dug his claws into his brother's shuddering form even deeper, slowly, making it as agonizing as possible.

For an instant, as those words hit Inuyasha in his deeply buried heart, his will to live faltered – after all, wasn't Sesshoumaru right? What did he really have to live for? No one would miss him in any way – if he passed out of life, it would not affect anything or anyone at all. The only one who had ever cared was his mother – and she was already dead. If he died, he'd only go and join her.

But just as his heart was about to let go, and let death come for him, everything stopped – as though time itself had frozen. In that second, he felt a powerful presence surround him, and he fell into a cool blue world of light as something wrapped itself around his soul, and drowned him in an emotion he'd not felt in a hundred and forty-five years... love.

He froze... and stared into deep honey brown eyes, framed by black bangs and flowing locks. He couldn't really make out too much in the way of features, but it was a woman – and she was staring at him with so much love in her eyes that he stopped breathing for a moment in shock.

_He's wrong, Inuyasha, _came a whisper into his mind. _I love you... just as you are. As a hanyou. And we will meet one day... but only if you fight to live. Don't give up on me..._

Wrapped as he was in so much love, he could do nothing else but accept the gift, taking it into himself and then giving it back to the giver as his soul flared with a new light – a determination to _live_... and to meet this woman who would love him as he was, and who carried the light of a soul more powerful than the sun.

Opening his eyes to stare into his brother's golden eyes, he was unaware of the flash of crimson in his own, but with everything in him, every bit of the power that lay in the soul twining itself so closely around his, he _pushed_...

And Sesshoumaru, with a look of shock on his face that Inuyasha had never seen before, flew back into the trees, taking out three before hitting a final one. He fell to his knees and slumped from the impact.

"You're wrong, Sesshoumaru. There _is_ someone who would mourn me... and I'm not gonna disappoint her by dying – especially at the hands of the likes of _you." _Inuyasha slumped to the ground himself, then, as his injuries suddenly made themselves felt, and as he passed out finally from the shocks his body had endured, he felt comforted by the barrier he saw form around himself... and the arms he felt holding his soul even as darkness reached up and swallowed him.

_Remember, Inuyasha... we will meet someday – and from that day on, I will always be by your side._

-sSs-

"Kagome!"

Inuyasha leaped after the girl in the green skirt and white shirt as she overbalanced and fell from the shock of her powers finally being unsealed fully, for the first time since her birth.

Eyes still red, and claws and fangs still prominent from his transformation at Naraku and the jewel's instigation, he reached her, grabbing her from mid air and pulling her protectively into him. In the instant that she landed in his arms, her soul reached out and grabbed his, placating his demon blood and rendering him back into his hanyou form.

As he landed, and she pulled her face back from his shoulder, asking him to look at her, he stiffened in shock as his eyes met hers... and he once again fell into a world of love in brown eyes framed by black bangs and flowing locks.

And suddenly, he knew.

It had always been Kagome.

Even hundreds of years before her birth, even while her soul had been in use by Kikyou, Kagome had somehow torn it from Kikyou's grasp... and had come to him, to save him from his brother, and himself. To love him, and promise to stay by his side – and she had, just as she'd said she would.

All the worries he'd had about what would happen after the jewel was gone faded away in that moment of realization – because he knew that no matter what, even if time pulled her away from him...

She would find her way back.

After all... her soul had already conquered time and a previous incarnation to come to him once before.

She would again, if it became necessary.

"Come on, Kagome... let's go beat this bastard and get rid of the jewel." His eyes smiled down into hers as she nodded. "I've got plans for the future... and Naraku ain't part of 'em."

She smiled. "I'm with you, Inuyasha... always have been... and always will be."

-sSs-

A/N: I was inspired to write this last night while I was sitting in the Urgent Care clinic waiting for my daughter to be seen, and listening to my Ipod. A song called Pieces, by Red – it's so perfect for this pairing. So anyway... hope you all enjoy!

Amber


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